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Chanting in support of marriage equality and carrying signs, flags and banners, more than 300 people marched a half-mile through downtown Tuesday night — from Milam Park past City Hall and on to the Bexar County Courthouse.

Organizers started planning the “Light the Way to Justice” march and candlelight vigil just a week ago as the local leg of a nationwide event that included several hundred marches.

The demonstration — which drew no visible opposition, though some state officials have spoken out against same-sex marriage recently — coincided with the day's oral arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“That we were able to get it together so quickly, and had such a turnout, speaks to the amount of support our community has for this,” said Mitsue McCoy, one of several lead organizers. “But we wanted to do this and have a presence today even if it would have just been 10 people — we have enough passion, and that's what's going to speak to people, not the numbers.”

Without a permit for the march, organizers used a megaphone to remind participants to march single-file, not to obstruct others from using the sidewalk and to obey crossing signs.

The group chanted several phrases, among them, “Gay, straight, black, white, marriage is a civil right,” and “2, 4, 6, 8, how do you know your kids are straight?”

Marchers Tonya Perkins and Isabella Pacetti have been a couple for 13 years but were just married in Massachusetts in February. They carried a sign bordered with hearts that read, “Just married in Boston. Can't wait until it's passed in Texas.”

“There's one thing all Texans can agree on, and that's don't mess with my family,” Perkins said, smiling. “That's what's going to help marriage equality in Texas, because it doesn't matter if you're conservative or liberal, that's how Texans feel.”

Pacetti chimed in, “We just want to make sure we have the same rights. It's not an agenda, we just want to live.”

Carlos Soto, another march organizer, said that although the road to equality in Texas may be long, having the support of local politicians, including Mayor Julián Castro, makes it easier to continue.

“The fact that's he's marched (previously) and let others know his stance regardless of the backlash, it feels good to know he's proud to be mayor of the whole city and not just part of it,” Soto said.

When President Barack Obama endorsed marriage rights for all Americans, Castro did as well.

“I applaud the president's recognition that gays and lesbians should not be treated as second-class citizens with regard to marriage,” Castro said in May.

The Tribune reported last week that although Texas still lags much of the nation, support for gay marriage is increasing here.

“Overall opposition to same-sex marriage has been on a slow and steady decline,” according to the poll, which showed 60 percent of respondents favor some sort of same-sex union.

In Austin on Tuesday, Gov. Rick Perry remained unmoved by the high court's decision to take up the issue. Along with most conservative leaders in Texas, he stands by the state's constitutional ban on gay marriage that was approved by voters in 2005.

“The people of the state of Texas, myself included, believe that marriage is between one man and one woman, ” Perry said at a Capitol news conference.

Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday said marriage is “not man-made law,” but rather “God's law that man applied and adopted here in Texas and the United States, and man cannot rewrite God's law,” according to a report by the Austin-American Statesman.

Abbott said the Supreme Court hearings put the definition of marriage “under assault,” and that he could not forecast the outcome.

“But here is what I can predict for you,” he said. “Regardless of how that case turns out, Texans will respond the way they always do. We will fight to ensure that traditional values of faith and family will be preserved, protected and defended in the state of Texas.”